Broadbanding is an approach to job classification and compensation that takes into consideration content and scope of a job; employee knowledge, skills and abilities; the job market; and employee performance.

Broadbanding groups similar jobs together using a few, wide salary bands defined by the U.S. Department of Education. Within those bands, positions with similar skill requirements are grouped into job families. Job family titles are used on all payroll records, budget documents, personnel files and other official records. The hiring institutions may assign functional titles for other uses.Broadbanding policies, band descriptions, functional title suggestions, pay policy and forms can be found in the NDUS Human Resource Policy Manual.

Placement of a position within a job band is based on the position description. The position description also is used to determine fair market value for each position. The market rate is used in making salary decisions. Other salary-setting considerations are job performance, level of responsibility, directly related experience and internal equity.

Job bands in the University System are managed by the NDUS Human Resource Council. If an employee or employee's supervisor is dissatisfied with a job band or job family assignment, the assignment may be appealed within 30 days from the date the band/job family assignment was mailed. Appeals are filed with the human resource offices of the hiring institutions.